A collocation is a sequence of words (word pairings or word groupings) that appear frequently together.
In the example sentence, "I would like a cup of strong coffee,"
strong coffee is a collocation. Although
powerful is a synonym of
strong, it would not make much sense to use
powerful in the place of
strong.
In some cases, you need to use the word
powerful. Let's consider the following sentence:
"I need a powerful computer to process the graphics quickly."
In this sentence,
powerful computer is a collocation. In this case, the word
powerful is more preferred than
strong.
In short, collocations are made up of two or more words that often go together. They are word pairings that are regularly used with one another. You might hear or read someone say:
“He is my best friend.”
“Best friends forever.”
“I had lunch with my best friend.”
“Partner up with your best friend.”
When the word
friend is used in a sentence, it is not by chance that the word
best is used. In this case,
best friend is a collocation.
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